AUSTRIA
Exhibition 'European Portrait from Gainsborough to Waldmüller', October 25 – February 18, Vienna. The Belvedere gallery in Vienna opens an exhibition of European portraiture of the 18th-19th centuries – an era of rapid development of this genre. The exhibition presents two main trends in portrait art of 1750-1840: neoclassical and romantic, paying special attention to the inner world of man. Austrian and Swiss portraiture is represented by works of such artists as Johann Baptist Lampi the Elder, Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, Angelica Kauffman. Spanish portraiture is represented by paintings of Francisco Goya, English – by works of Thomas Gainsborough and David Wilkie, French – by paintings of Jacques-Louis David, François Gérard and Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun. //www.belvedere.at
Church exhibition Gloria 2006, October 19-21, Dornbirn. This is the largest church exhibition in Europe, whose unusual format attracts more and more visitors. Antiques: primarily magazines, books and church supplies are the main exhibits, interesting, of course, not only to clergymen. //www.messegloria.info
BELGIUM
Namur Nature Arts Festival, until October 22, Namur. This festival has been held since 1995, attracting the attention of nature lovers, connoisseurs and admirers of its beauty. The festival program includes exhibitions of photography, painting, and a documentary film competition. For the main prize - €33 thousand - contestants will compete in two categories this year: amateurs and professionals. Festival exhibitions will take place in various galleries in Namur (Galerie du Beffroi, Eglise Notre-Dame), and the film festival will be at the Royal Theatre. //www.videonature.be //www.natagora.be
Exhibition 'Ensor and the Avant-Garde', until February 25, Ostend. The Museum of Modern Art in Ostend (PMMK) will celebrate its twentieth anniversary with the opening of a large exhibition of avant-garde art. The central part of the exhibition composition, its meaning-forming component, will be paintings by the famous Belgian artist James Ensor (1860–1949), born and died in Ostend. The museum has managed to gather for this exhibition most of the artist's paintings, etchings and lithographs from public and private collections. Ensor is often called a forerunner of surrealism and expressionism, so the exhibition also creates a kind of 'avant-garde context' – paintings by Edvard Munch, Giorgio de Chirico, Paul Delvaux, René Magritte, Salvador Dalí and Max Ernst. //www.ensoraanzee.be //www.pmmk.be
GREAT BRITAIN
Diego Velázquez Exhibition, October 18 – January 21, London. The National Gallery in London will open an exhibition of Diego Velázquez (1599-1660), who is considered the undisputed head of the Spanish school of painting. The curators of this exhibition claim that it will be the largest exhibition of Velázquez in England, featuring almost half of all the artist's surviving paintings. Three main facts determine the stages of Velázquez's biography and creative evolution: his arrival in Madrid (1623), when he became 'painter to the king' Philip IV, and two trips to Italy (1630-1631 and 1649-1651). The exhibition will feature paintings on sacred and mythological subjects, portraits and genre scenes from the life of the royal family. In addition to the National Gallery's own collection, paintings will be provided by the Prado in Madrid and other European museums. //www.nationalgallery.org.uk
GERMANY
Long Night of Museums, October 21, Munich. From seven in the evening until two at night, 70 Munich museums and galleries will be open to visitors during the traditional 'Long Night of Museums'. You can buy a single ticket for €15 and visit absolutely all museums, you can choose thematic guided tours or travel independently using special transport for fast movement from museum to museum. //www.muenchner.de
GREECE
Exhibition 'Modern House', October 21-29, Piraeus. For 45 years, this exhibition has been held with constant success, presenting novelties and current trends in the world of design and technical arrangement of modern housing. The exhibition usually has the following sections: latest offers in interior design, kitchens and bathrooms, furniture, textiles, developments in security alarm systems. Here you can choose lighting fixtures, as well as the latest equipment for ventilation, air conditioning, heating systems, buy countertops, furniture, various finishing materials. For a whole week, all this can be viewed at the OLP exhibition center.
DENMARK
Night of Culture, October 14, Copenhagen. Every year in Copenhagen in mid-October, the Night of Culture takes place, during which doors of museums, galleries, libraries, churches and theaters are open for numerous visitors until dawn. There will be special concerts, lectures, dance evenings. Tickets to this 'cultural night' are very cheap, and special transport will operate for free movement. //www.kulturnatten.dk/
Exhibition 'Women and Impressionism', until January 21, Copenhagen. The exhibition season began at the recently reopened Copenhagen Glyptotek after three years of reconstruction. And the first major event will be the opening of a thematic exhibition dedicated to the new vision and depiction of women in Impressionist art. The Glyptotek is famous for its own collection of Impressionists, but most of the paintings for this exhibition are 'borrowed' from major museums around the world and private collections. So, female images in Impressionist art will be represented by paintings by Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, Berthe Morisot. //www.glyptoteket.dk
SPAIN
Exhibition 'Turn on the Power!', until January 7, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. A new exhibition opening at the CAAM museum is built on an unexpected combination of visual and sound sequences in contemporary art. It is oriented towards the standard modern 'clip consciousness' and, at the same time, towards the unexpected destruction of stereotypes of such a worldview. The visual sequence consists of photographs and video films that are combined with melodic and noise sequences. Visitors themselves will have to decide the question of harmony and disharmony of such correspondences. //www.caam.net
Exhibition '100% Africa', October 12 – February 1, Bilbao. This exhibition is a unique opportunity to get acquainted with contemporary African art. The original paintings, sculptures and photographs of 30 artists from 20 African countries presented here belong to Swiss collector Jean Pigozzi. Since 1989 he began collecting contemporary African art, and an important selection criterion was the lack of professional artistic education of the authors. In short, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao opens an exhibition of one hundred percent original creativity from the 'Contemporary African Art Collection' (CAAC). //www.guggenheim-bilbao.es
ITALY
Exhibition of Andy Warhol, until January 7, Rome. A large retrospective exhibition of works by the 'king of pop art' Andy Warhol, who came to art from advertising and made a dizzying career in the 60s, opens at the Roman museum Chiostro del Bramante. The exhibition is divided into several thematic sections, but the central one is undoubtedly the section 'Myths of Beauty, Success and Power' (series of mechanical appliques 'Marilyn', 'Elvis', 'Jackie Kennedy', 'Mao'). The section 'Symbols of Consumer Psychology' is represented by series depicting such 'sacred monsters' as the dollar and 'Campbell's Soup Cans'. For many, the sections 'Symbols of Death' ('Electric Chair') and 'Transition to Abstraction' ('Camouflage', 'Shadows') will be a real discovery. //www.chiostrodelbramante.it //www.romart.it
International Boat Show Salone Nautico, until October 15, Genoa. Lovers of water tourism, yachting and athletes are becoming more numerous, as are visitors to this boat show in Genoa. Last year, 300 thousand people came to evaluate novelties from different countries of the world. Salone Nautico will be open from morning until late evening, and visitors can expect all kinds of presentations and, of course, competitions – boat and water scooter competitions. //www.navigarmedolce.it //www.ucina.net
FRANCE
International Contemporary Art Fair FIAC, October 26-30, Paris. It is believed that the international contemporary art fair FIAC is the most important date in the calendar of contemporary art exhibitions of the 20th and 21st centuries. The project will involve 180 art galleries from 25 countries - they will present paintings, drawings, sculptures, installations, video works and photographs from their own collections. This year the fair has two centers - the Grand Palais and the Cour Carrée of the Louvre. //www.fiacparis.com
'Drawings by Rembrandt' and other exhibitions at the Louvre, October, Paris. In October, several exhibitions open simultaneously at the Louvre in Paris. First, an exhibition dedicated to the 400th anniversary of the birth of Rembrandt. It will present drawings and engravings by the great artist from the best French collections (October 20 - January 8). The second exhibition is called 'Foreign Body' (October 13 - January 15). It is constructed as a dialogue between two types of plastic images: the plasticity of the human body and the plasticity of visual images taken from paintings by famous artists. This effect of unexpected 'overlays' and 'combinations' is possible, above all, in installations. They are the main objects of the exhibition. And finally, the third exhibition will be held as part of the FIAC art fair, and it is dedicated to contemporary photography. It will feature works by the famous German photographer Candida Höfer (October 18 - January 15). //www.louvre.fr
SWITZERLAND
Toy Fair, October 12-15, Zurich. In mid-October, the Zurich exhibition center will host an exhibition that families usually attend, as it is dedicated to the most interesting items in the world – toys. Games and toys for different ages, educational and intellectual games, models, construction sets, craft kits - this is far from a complete list of goods that will be exhibited and sold at this fair. //www.spielmesse.ch
Exhibition 'Kandinsky. Painting 1908-1921', October 21 – February 4, Basel. The year 1908 was a landmark for Vasily Kandinsky (1866-1944), because it was then that a sharp turning point occurred in his work, defined by him as a 'leap into abstraction'. It happened in Murnau: one evening, returning to his studio, the artist saw an 'indescribably beautiful picture, saturated with inner fire, consisting exclusively of colored spots'. Kandinsky recognized it as his own painting, 'leaned against the wall and standing on its side'. It was then, according to the artist himself, that it became 'indisputably clear that objectivity is harmful' to his paintings. It is precisely this period - the search for expressive means in abstract art - that the exhibition, which will open at the Kunstmuseum Basel, is dedicated to. It brings together more than 60 paintings by Kandinsky from American, French and Russian museums. //www.kunstmuseumbasel.ch